Christmas decorating

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas at the Miller house. I have so enjoyed my new found love for the everyday I couldn't wait to get the house clean and ready for Christmas decorating. I spent the week after Thanksgiving getting everything in order for a fun Saturday with the family. I looked forward to it all week. I was worried at one point we would have to postpone because Jake-Man came down with a fever Thurs. afternoon. Luckily by Sat he was as fit as a fiddle.
We started out our Saturday morning by staying in our jammies and enjoying a YUMMY green chili and bacon breakfast pizza.

After that it was time to unpack the train that goes around the tree. To say Jake was excited would be an understatment!

Admiring the Engine....

 

After playing with the train a little it was time to start on the Christmas tree! Jake was a big help!!

A short break to admire the engine once more...

Make sure it's not crooked, Dad!

Helping Mommy with the lights.

Hanging ornaments

Jake's all landed on the same spot on the tree. He had so much fun looking at all the different ornaments. We'll be lucky if they actually end up staying ON the tree.

Finally it's all said and done. After finally getting dressed for the day, a little time to adimire the train once again.

And a day topped off with a story with Daddy...

We had such an amazing Saturday together. Ya know, our decorations aren't perfect, they aren't fancy, they aren't glamerous... but they are ours, and I LOVE them. We are so very blessed. I love our growing family of 3!!

Thanksgiving 2011

So I know we've been absent for awhile and I promise I have good reasons! There is so much to tell, there's no way I'll fit it into one post. So I think what I'm going to try and do is start with Thanksgiving and maybe between now and Christmas do some backtracking to Jake's 2nd birthday, Halloween and other activities I've managed NOT to blog about.

I'm sure most of you know by now that we found out in September that we are expecting baby #2 in May. We are extremely thrilled... now that we've gotten through the rough spot called the first trimester. To say it wasn't nice to me is very much an under statement. I went from having HORRIBLE nausea and losing 10 lbs to breaking out in hives from HEAD to TOE. I'm talking swollen ears, hands, knuckles, etc. You know the scene in "Hitched" where Will Smith eats fish and has an allergic reaction. Well, lets just say that was my ENTIRE body. It was AWFUL! It's a long story, but we're past that now and I'm LOVING the second trimester. I'm full of energy and have a RENEWED joy for what I get to do as a stay at home Mom!

This Thanksgiving we had so much to be Thankful for, but never have I been so thankful for my health and the ability to do.... do laundry, do dishes, do the dusting and cleaning, do the normally mundane tasks. The Lord really has put a new song in my heart for the place I am in in life right now. He truly puts a new song in my heart each and every morning. I ask Him DAILY to never let me forget what it was like to NOT be able to do. To have to sit by and not be able to cook/clean/take care of my son. To watch my AMAZING husband take on not only his task as husband and dad, but also the task of Mom, cook, sole child care provider, EVERYTHING. He was running SOLO. And let me tell you, not ONE TIME did he EVER complain. He would actually tell me at night, as I cried myself to sleep time and time again, how honored he was to be able to serve me in such a way. WOW... sorry ladies, he's taken and he's MINE!

So needless to say, just the fact that we were able to get in the car as a family, drive to Mesquite and spend time with family was more than I could have ever asked for. We had THE BEST time with Gerald's family. We ATE, and ATE, and ATE.... you see the trend. We laughed a lot and just enjoyed being together. Now, the drive there was not so pleasant, sitting in traffic for about an hr. and making it about 5 miles, but even in that I was able to remain joyful. GOD IS GOOD!!

So we arrived in Mesquite Wed. evening where Jake pretty much went straight to bed on his fun little pallet on the floor. Thursday we woke up, had a great breakfast with G's family, and relaxed until it was time to get ready and head over to Dawna's house for turkey and other yummy fixings.  We got there around 3:30 and had a smorgasbord of food. It was all DELICIOUS! This expecting Mommy was happy! Jake got to play with cousin Grayson, who is about 6 months younger than him. They had fun running around and playing with cars. Later when the men were taking a break from football they hooked up the Kinect for Jake-Man to play with. He was a HOOT! He thought it was the coolest thing that he could see himself appear and then disappear on screen. They also had a mini-tramp out for him to play on and the phrase "Jumpin' Jake" was quickly coined. He would have jumped on that thing all night if we had let him. Jake pretty much had everyone in stitches by the end.  He would jump, jump, jump, then jump off and yell, "YAY JAKE!". Such a cutie! He had a good time with all his Aunts, Uncles, and cousins. (Minus Aunt Merry who didn't make it down this year, she was missed!) We finally managed to get J-Man loaded in the car and headed back to Bauchi's house for the night. He crashed hard! The next morning we got up and headed out the door around 9:30 to do a little shopping.  Nothing serious, just a little browsing and to just get out and see the crowds, which really didn't end up being that bad in Mesquite. We had fun just strolling and letting J run the mall. After that we headed home for a quick nap and then off to the park with Aunt Michelle, Uncle John, and Bauchi to feed the ducks and play on the playground. The weather was perfect, and as usual, Jake had a great time. He could play on a playground 24/7 if we had the time. Once we were done at the park we went and picked up Grandpa and headed to eat at Texas Roadhouse, YUMMM! Jake was such a big boy, he did AMAZING, if I can say that. G and I were so proud at how well he sat in his highchair, and what a joyful heart he had.... I guess it's contagious. We had a great visit and plenty of leftovers.
So Saturday came and Bauchi had to leave and meet up with Aunt Merry in Vicksburg, we were sad to see her go. We packed up and headed over to Aunt Michelle's where we spent the day and evening. It was great to get to spend so much time with Gerald's family this holiday. It's usually a whirlwind trip, but this one was relaxed and just enough time to see everyone. WE ARE SO INCREDIBLY BLESSED!!

A Hodge Podge of Activity

So our little man has kept us busy... can I blame him for Mommy not having the energy left at the end of the day to update the blog?? We have so much fun together everyday. I try to get us out of the house at least once a day, usually to a park to play. Jake is a little monkey, he climbs on, over, on top of ANYTHING he can find. I still have to stay close b/c he'll also try and JUMP OFF of any high apparatus he can manage to climb onto.
Last weekend we stayed pretty busy out and about. We went out to the Apple Orchard in Idalou for the Apple Butter Festival. Jake had a BLAST!

Playing in the corn field with his BFF Ellie

Cruising down the bounce house slide,

picking apples

Eating Apples

Sharing Apples

And just having fun.

... oh, and his favorite, jumping off the hay bales

Fun was had by all!!

This was also the anniversary for 9-11, so we took Jake out to the memorial they put up every year. It's overwhelming to be out there and think of all the men and women, past/present/future who have fought and even given their lives for OUR freedom. I hope we can raise Jake in a way that he appreciates the history that has brought us to where we are today.

Jake loves to go and feed ducks at the nearby parks.

There are a ton of other shenanigans I could show you and write about, but my time has run out. I hope you have enjoyed this update. It's hard to believe my next post will probably be about his SECOND BIRTHDAY!!

Summer Time...

So this post will be a little sporadic, so try and stay with me. I don't really have one thing to write about, so thought I would just do a little "what we've been up to" post. Jake is still growing like a weed getting taller and taller!!

Yep, that's the 3ft. red line at his head.

(As you can see he wasn't real thrilled about standing for a picture)

He is pretty sure he is part monkey and climbs and swings from anything he can reach!!

I can't say that his height is working to our advantage, HA! He enjoys being able to see onto tables, cabinets and drawers. Unfortunately he thinks that means anything within reach is fair game. He gets to hear the word "no" quite a bit.

He is still our little helper. I can't get out the duster, broom, or vacuum without allowing him to help. We have two of everything so that Mommy can have one, and Jake can have one. He's actually pretty good when it comes to dusting and descent with a vacuum (small bissel of course). He also likes to help clean out his little pool and water table. You won't see this Mommy complaining!

He still LOVES being outside and having friends over to play. We've gone to the big pool a few times, but since I'm by myself I haven't been able to get any pictures or videos :-( He's pretty cute in his life jacket. He LOVES to jump off the side. I still haven't taken him COMPLETELY under the water, but pretty close. That's just Mommy's fear, not Jake's. He doesn't seem to have a bone of fear in his body when it comes to things like that. He's working on learning to ride his tricycle since his legs are finally long enough to reach the pedals. He still likes to just scoot himself along, but is getting better with the pedals each time we go out. He'll be taking off before we know it!

One of his favorite INDOOR places to go to is the science spectrum and of course Jumpin' Jungle. I've just got one video of him going down the big slide at Jumpin' Jungle. He thinks he's pretty big and can conquer anything the big kids can. In this video he's trying to copy how the big kids went down on their back. He laid back a little too far and had to scoot up to slide down, silly boy, he's a hoot. Sometimes I wish I could video him all day so I could share the joy and laughter that he brings to me even on the toughest days. He's starting to say more and more, "Ahh Man!" is his favorite phrase... but I'm getting ahead of myself. Back to the science spectrum, he still LOVES to go see the choo-choo's and now the airplane room. He will spend a majority of his time there.

We're not potty training yet, but we're thinking about tackling that after his 2nd birthday in October, still warm enough to run around outside in his birthday suite! We're not in any big hurry, but think, hey, if we can save money on diapers, that would be AWESOME!

As for his speech he's "talking" more and more. He has a little over 100 words that I can understand and about 35 that the general public could understand. He's starting to put two words together. "Bye-Bye Daddy", "Daddy Work", "Bye-Bye Joe-Joe", "I crash", "More please", "Chocolate Milk" and a few more.

I was actually concerned about his speech and had ECI (Early Childhood Intervention) come out. It's a FREE service to ANYONE to have them come out and do an evaluation. They handle, speech, physical therapy, occupational therapy and I'm sure a lot more. So they came out last week and "evaluated" Jake. Needless to say he didn't qualify. He is 22 months old; his expressive speech (how well he communicates with others) he was performing at 26 months. His receptive speech (how well he understands others/follows directions, etc) he was performing at 34 months. MOMMY BRAGGING RIGHTS... He's a smart cookie!! He amazes me everyday at what he understands. I thought this was pretty funny; they put a little monkey inside a circle and asked him to get the monkey out of the circle... so he picked up the circle and moved it out of the way, HA! The therapists thought that was pretty funny too. He is a THINKER. You can see the wheels moving in his head. Another thing they did was get out dolls and ask him to get the Mommy, Daddy, Baby, etc., he did that with no problem. Then they asked him to give them the Daddy's little girl, he did that. Then asked him where the little girl's Daddy was, he chose correctly. They tested him on his understanding of position words like on top of, behind, under, etc. He identified all the primary colors (blue, red, orange, yellow, green, and also white and purple).  They asked him to hand him the block that was bigger and smaller and he got that correct. Then had him sort the circles and squares and he did that. He put shape puzzles together and stacked 7 small blocks. I REALLY enjoyed having them out. I could go on and on bragging, but I'll stop there. Have I mentioned how he absolutely AMAZES me every day?!?

This video is pretty long and taken a month or so back. He speech would be more clear if he wasn't eating the whole time. It's just that the highchair is the only place he sits still long enough for me to get any kind of video of him talking. This is more for me to have, watch if you have a few extra minutes.

His newest thing is jumping off his bed... STRESSES THIS MOMMY OUT!!



I'm sure there is a lot I've left out, but I'll end here for now. To sum it up, Jake is such a blessing to us EVERY day! He really is a good boy. He has his moments of pushing boundaries, but all in all behaves very well. I've implemented a picture schedule to help us get through the day and mostly help him know when it's TV time and when it's not. He LOVES his DVD's. His favorites are Thomas, Dinosaur Train, Curious George, and Cars. He would watch shows all day if I would let him.

I am so blessed to be able to stay home with Jake every day. We have so much fun together and I love to see him grow and change every day. I wish I could document it all! I hope you have enjoyed the photos and videos of our ALMOST 2 year old. Oh, and by the way, we are NOT speaking the "terrible two's" over our boy. So you won't see a post titled "The Terrible Two's" Just sayin'.